Judges 13:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

JUDGES CHAPTER 13 The Philistines again oppress Israel, Judges 13:1. An angel appeareth to Manoah's wife, promising her a son that should be a Nazarite, and deliver Israel, Judges 13:2-5. She informs her husband hereof: he prayeth, and obtaineth a return of the angel, Judges 13:6-14. Manoah is desirous to provide food for the angel, and inquireth after his name, Judges 13:15-18. He sacrificeth to the Lord, and the angel ascendeth to heaven in the flame of the burnt-offering, Judges 13:19-21. Hereat Manoah is affrighted, but comforted by his wife; who beareth him a son; his name Samson, in whom is the Spirit of the Lord, Judges 13:22-25. Did evil, i.e. fell into idolatry, &c., not now after the death of Abdon the last judge, but in the days of the former judges. Forty years, to be computed not from Abdon's death, but before that time, as is evident both from Judges 13:5, where it is declared that Israel was under the power of the Philistines; and from Judges 15:20, where only twenty of these years are said to have been in Samson's days. And it is probably conceived, that that great slaughter of the Ephraimites made by Jephthah did greatly encourage the Philistines to rise against Israel, when one of their chief bulwarks was so much weakened; and therefore that the Philistines began to domineer over them not long after Jephthah's death.